1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to speech encoding and decoding in mobile cellular communication networks; and, more particularly, it relates to various techniques of using sub-codebooks for pulse-like excitation in speech reproduction through a limited bit rate communication channel.
2. Related Art
Signal modeling and parameter estimation play significant roles in communicating voice information with limited bandwidth constraints. To model basic speech sounds, speech signals are sampled as a discrete waveform to be digitally processed. In one type of signal coding technique, called linear predictive coding (LPC), the signal value at any particular time index is modeled as a linear-function of previous values. A subsequent signal is thus linearly predictable according to an earlier value. As a result, efficient signal representations can be determined by estimating and applying certain prediction parameters to represent the signal.
In speech encoding and decoding, it is well-known that pulse-like excitation provides better quality than noise-like excitation for voiced speech. Previously, exclusively pulse-like excitation was used with ACELP (Adaptive Code Excited Linear Predictive) systems in which codebooks with fixed numbers of pulses, fixed pulse position resolution and fixed pulse magnitude was utilized. Nevertheless, ACELP systems did not work well for certain types of speech signals.
The present invention addresses these problems by recognizing that, depending on the circumstances, either the number of pulses or the pulse position resolution may be more important. Accordingly, sub-codebooks are designed in such a way that either frequency of pulses or pulse resolution can be emphasized.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.